by arthur Weinreb, associate Editor,
July 23, 2004
Not all councillors mind you. The Toronto Star only thinks that Toronto City Councillors are bullies when they take positions that the left-wing daily disagrees with.
There was a public uproar after the Toronto Police Services Board voted not to renew the contract of popular police chief, Julian Fantino. The cop-hating Star spent months in late 2002 and early 2003 trying to show that members of the Toronto Police Service are nothing more than a bunch of racists that harass, arrest and detain young black males because they’re young, black males. So it is no surprise that when a chief like Fantino draws much stronger support than the Toronto Star’s boy, socialist mayor David Miller, the newspaper wants the chief to go.
Several Toronto councillors, led by Giorgio Mammoliti are taking action to try to get the Toronto Police Services Board to reconsider their decision. Mammoliti spearheaded motions before council as well as organized a petition drive and a rally in support of the chief whose current contract expires in March of next year. In a July 16 editorial, the Toronto Star labelled Mammoliti and the city councillors who support Fantino "bullies".
according to the editorial, it is okay for homeless people to hold rallies and protests, but not members of council. The councillors have a voice, says the paper. as the Star puts it, "They’re politicians who are paid an ample salary, and issued expense budgets, to run City Hall. They’re well equipped to ‘work the system’. In fact they are the system." It is "unsettling" to the Toronto Star to find councillors organizing a high-profile campaign to retain Police Chief Julian Fantino…" and the councillors who are doing so are simply bullies.
In an attempt to slam the police, Fantino and Fantino supporters, the Toronto Star does not recognize the major flaw in their argument. The newspaper readily and properly admits that the decision regarding the chief’s contract is not one for council to make. That task is solely the function of the Toronto Police Services Board. But on the other hand, the Star says that the councillors are "the system" when in fact that "system" has no say on the issue of who should be or remain the city’s chief of police. If Mammoliti et. al. had the power to vote on whether Fantino should stay or go, they would have no reason to gather petitions and hold rallies.
The editorial also implies that Mammoliti and the other councillors are acting solely due to political motives. While politics undoubtedly plays a part, the Star completely ignores the fact that the movement to keep the popular Fantino has a lot of support with the public, those whom the councillors are supposed to be acting for.
This editorial is a clear example of how those on the left will resort to flawed arguments to support their positions.